Belkin Unveils Energy Gateway

Consumer electronics heavyweight Belkin continues to launch more of its Conserve line of products that enable users to manage energy consumption in homes and office buildings. This morning, Belkin unveiled its Conserve Gateway, which wirelessly connects to smart meters and an Internet router to deliver energy consumption information to a Conserve website (see awkward staring guy pictured left looking at the device).

Up to this point, Belkin has tended to offer Conserve products that are focused on helping offices and consumers curb vampire power, including a smart power strip, a mobile device-charging station, a wall-socket timer and a smart surge protector. But Conserve’s Gateway is focused squarely on the utility, and Belkin isn’t selling the product directly to consumers.

The Gateway is meant to be paired with a smart meter and can provide a two-way connection between the utility and the customer. Belkin notes that the Gateway can be used to push information to the consumer via the website like pricing signals, efficiency tips or demand response alerts.

Belkin has made a few investments to move more aggressively into this space this year. That includes buying a startup named Zensi, which had built energy sensing and monitoring technology. And Belkin also made “a significant” equity investment in Juice Technologies, a 2-year-old company that makes electric vehicle smart charging and home energy monitoring equipment. Belkin and Juice also said that they will co-create energy management products for the residential and small-business market.

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